Are their waste centers that automatically separate and recycle waste?

Question

I saw a program online where they have these huge machines that sort all your trash for you before it is either recycled or thrown in a landfill. How many places do this?

Answer 1

Trucks empty recyclables onto tipping floor and weigh out to determine load weight.

Waste Handler front loader pushes material onto residential conveyor.

Presort:

Pre-sorters remove garbage, scrap metal, phone books, plastic film and large plastic items.

Garbage conveyed to trash compactor.

Other recyclables sorted into separate containers to await transport & baling.

Fiber Sorting:

Mechanical screens separate material according to size & weight: first

cardboard, then newspaper, then mixed paper.

Quality control sorters remove and redirect incorrect items.

Sorted fiber drops into storage bunkers to await baling.

Rigid Container Processing:

Glass, metal and plastic containers conveyed into mechanical glass screen.

Glass breaks to minus 2” pieces and drops onto glass conveyor

Glass conveyed to air classifier to remove shredded paper, which goes to trash compactor.

Glass conveyed to bunker to await loading.

Magnetic belt removes steel cans, which are conveyed to silo to await baling.

Perforator flattens plastic and aluminum containers.

Sorters separate plastic into silos for PET, natural HDPE, colored HDPE, and other bottles.

Eddy current separates aluminum cans.

Residue returns to tipping floor for reprocessing.

Baling and Shipping

Sorted materials conveyed in turn from bunkers and silos to balers.

Bales transported by forklift to shipping containers at loading dock.

Materials shipped to domestic and international markets for processing into recycled content products.

Answer 2

I know of only one, in Kitchener-Waterloo Ontario.

In this case it has a conveyor belt on which the trash falls (no packer trucks)  there is a magnetic separator, then people pick up other known recyclables and clearly non-recyclables.

The whole process is improved by having most of compost material removed and never put in the trash.

Material that might later be recyclable is piled for periodic reconsideration in separate piles.

Near the end of the  conveyor, solid objects are removed, and anything that might not be compostable, so that what falls off the conveyor is presumably compostable.

Every day they get a few bricks and stones, clay pots, wallboard, plaster, things that need not be sent to landfill. But they are used for fill around buildings, places that you would see a sign sanitary fill needed.

But there is very little left that really needs to be put in land fill and covered with earth.

That site is a profit centre for the city.

Answer 3

USA, also known as Waste Management has a huge recycling plant in East Windsor. My son used to work there operating a wood recycler. It would break all the wood down to chips to be used for landscaping. I know they also have compost and fill there. I am not sure to what extent they operate.